AEJMC in San Francisco

This week I traveled to beautiful San Francisco to present research at the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication’s annual conference. It was my first conference for Cal State Long Beach and my second time visiting the city. My first was for a job interview at the start of the pandemic and I was incredibly stressed out the entire 28ish hours I was there. Needless to say, this was a much happier experience and far more rewarding!

Wednesday: Pre-conference/travel day

My flight did not depart from LAX until 1:50 p.m., so I had the entire morning to cover my rotten Lemon in kisses before I took off for San Fran. As excited as I always am to travel, leaving my babes behind is always the hardest part. Luckily I hired an amazing sitter on Rover, who sent me constant updates and gave both Lemon and Bernstein plenty of cuddles while I was gone.

I had scheduled an UBER to pick me up around 10:30 a.m., but the driver had the hardest time finding me. I was waiting by the main entrance to my apartment five minutes early, but he didn’t actually pick me up until 10:50 p.m. (I watched his little car icon on the map move in every direction but mine. Eventually he answered my call and allowed me to walk to him.) I was slightly stressed out at first, but I made it to LAX in plenty of time to pass through security and reach my gate. (I’m also five for five when it comes to TSA pat downs at LAX.)

My flight was pretty unexceptional. I read the entire time and made it to San Francisco International Airport by 3 p.m. Once I collected my luggage, I rode the BART to Hotel Zelos and checked in around 4:30 p.m. I spent much more time in UBERs and trains than in the air, but that was just what I expected. This being my second time in San Fran, I definitely had an easier time navigating the airport and rail system this go around.

Immediately upon entering the hotel I ran into a friend from graduate school, Enakshi, who was also in town for the conference. It was just a quick “hello, how have ya been?” but seeing a familiar face from my Ohio University days amped me up to see who else from my academic past I would run into on this trip. I quickly lugged my stuff up to the fifth floor so that I could settle in and register for the conference.

(Now — I am going to admit that I was not the best blogger this trip. I forgot to take a photo of my hotel room and every single meal I ate, sans one. So you are going to have to take my word for it when I tell you that my hotel was very nice and comfortable and that my food looked as good as it tasted.)

The conference was right across the street, at the San Francisco Marriott Marquis. Just like at the Hotel Zelos, I ran into a co-worker from Cal State as soon as I passed through the main lobby. We quickly touched base about our plans for the weekend, and I headed downstairs to pick up my lanyard and official program. At that point the pre-conference was winding down and not too much was going on, so I decided to head back to my hotel and figure out my plans for dinner.

This is where my first day gets a little embarrassing. I decided to walk around until I found an eatery that called to me, so I grabbed an iced horchata and was on my delightfully happy way. I passed a weed shop, where I picked up a vape pen and some gummies for my down time, and I walked around the city for a solid hour, hour and a half without ever making up my mind about where to eat. I started toward a falafel joint, but it turned out to be in a pretty shady part of town, so I ended up just running into the Trader Joe’s right next to my hotel. I grabbed a salad, lemon basil pasta, chips, and mini dark chocolate peanut butter cups. I figured having food/snacks back at the hotel would be a good idea regardless. And at $13 it was the cheapest meal of my entire trip. (Which is good, because I promptly lost the receipt when it floated out of my hands and down into a pile of shopping carts as I was riding up the escalator toward the exit.)

I made it back to my hotel around 8:30 p.m., where I caught the tail end of Big Brother and continued reading the book I had started on the plane. Womp womp. I know, I know. What a boring way to spend my first night in such a fun city! I promise it does get better, because the next day the conference was in full swing and my great friend and research partner, Jeremy, was in town. And we were just like peas and carrots!

AEJMC Day 1, Thursday: Presentation day!

I woke up fairly early on Thursday to prepare for my research presentation, but that was after I took the longest, hottest shower in the history of bathing. (The only thing I hate about my apartment in Long Beach is the shower, because it’s set to some sort of child lock and does not get properly hot. For that reason, I always appreciate and take advantage of a really good one.)

Jeremy and I met in the elevator on our way to grab breakfast together at Mel’s Drive-In and it was SO GOOD to see him and squeeze him again! We’re always working on research together and we’re super good friends, so we chat all the time, but it’s been years and years since we’ve gotten to hang out in person. I certainly hope it won’t be so long next time! Now that I’m in academia and Jeremy is about to get tenure, I don’t think it will be. There’s so much more work to be done and we’re a great research team!

Mel’s was just a short jump from the hotel and not a drive-in at all. Either way, it was super tasty! I ordered huevos rancheros and a coffee, and while the food was good, the company was even better! I don’t get the opportunity to enjoy a meal with friends too often these days, and so I always appreciate it when I can. It was really nice to catch up and share some laughs over eggies. It was just like old times!

We grabbed a coffee and split up while Jeremy went to register for the conference and I grabbed my AEJMC lanyard. When we met back up Jeremy was talking to Clay, so I had the opportunity catch up with another pal from my OU days! It felt so good to be back among the old gang again, especially after the long journey I took to get here. Clay was the first but not the last to comment on how nice it was to see me so happy. And I truly am!

After locating our presentation room, Jeremy and I attended a panel session titled, “Training Future Journalists in Times of Change: What’s Working in Student Media and Where to Look Outward.” Once it let out I headed back across the street to pick up my notes from the hotel, before heading back to the main conference hall to prep with Jeremy before our presentation. We chatted through our main discussion points and I condensed my notes from earlier in the morning.

Jeremy and I presented in a high intensity session, which was a new presentation format and kind of a cross between a presentation and poster session. Each presenter had four minutes to provide an overview of their project and were encouraged to bring handouts in lieu of any sort of audio/video presentation. Afterward each research team broke to separate tables, for individual Q and A sessions with the audience. Jeremy and I had two papers accepted to this session, so the discussants allowed us to pull our time and present together. Both of our studies surrounded how news organization used Reddit to promote news stories and engage with audiences, so I’m glad that they let us combine our time and provide a clearer overview of our work. Jeremy provided the context to our line of research, I discussed study one, then Jeremy closed out with a discussion of study two. And we NAILED IT!! I know I’m biased, but I truly feel like we really did a great job. (And we both wore green and accidentally matched, so we even looked a strong team! Go Bobcats!)

Clay came to our research presentation, as did Tina from my department. (Tina took the photos you see on this post for our CSULB socials, and I’m so grateful that she was there to document the occasion, especially since Jeremy and I were able to present together.) I was also super excited and grateful to see my old pal Dante from my Northwestern days there as well! It’s so special how some people stay in your lives after so much time and so many changes. Sixteen years and a couple careers later, and here were are — thriving in our academic circles! Something tells me it will not be another 16 before I see him again. It was so nice to look out into the crowd and see so much support from so many periods of my life.

Our session ended at 4:45 p.m., so after we finished up Jeremy and I headed back to the hotel to take a break and decompress for a bit before meeting for up for dinner. This is where I would have normally called my momma to let her know how the talk went, but I did the next best thing and messaged Sierra and Becca instead. They were very proud of me too!

Jeremy and I both thought that Thai food sounded like a pretty dang good way to celebrate our win, so we grabbed dinner at ThongLor SF. Talk about a big city dining experience! The place was hardly bigger than a hole in the wall, but it ran pretty deep into the building and the tables were practically stacked on top of each other. Diners had to pass a cramped little open kitchen to make it through to the seating area, so you could hear the sizzle of oil and the sounds of cookware just as well as you could hear your neighbor’s conversation. I loved it! We both ordered the pad thai, and I also ordered some curry puffs to split. Everything was so incredibly good, but the curry puffs were definitely my favorite part.

(Side note: San Francisco has these themed hearts everywhere, and I ran upon this one on the way to ThongLor and HAD to grab a photo with it. It was also my inspiration for checking out Lucasfilms a couple of days later.)

Back at my hotel I pulled out my book, popped an edible, and got down on some Big Brother. With the “hard part” of the conference successfully behind me, it felt really good to let my hair down and relax a bit. Call me lame, but by 10:30 p.m. I was a-snoozin’!

AEJMC Day 2, Friday: Gang’s all here!

I woke up on Friday well rested and ready to hit the ground running…after some trash TV and a hot bath! I’m a big fan of MTV’s The Challenge, and a new season just started up. I torrented the episode, filled my tub with water just below boiling, and watched my show like a lobster in a pot.

The place that Jeremy and I intended to go for breakfast was packed, so we ended up at Zevi Cafe & Bistro — a Mediterranean cafe and bistro, where I had a Greek omelette with green onions, spinach, tomatoes, olives, feta, and a side of house potatoes. It was SO DANG GOOD! I hardly ever go for an omelette, but this one was calling me and I’m glad I answered. Jeremy had a bagel sandwich, which also looked good, but this is when I really started eyeing those pancakes he ordered almost every morning. More on that later!

From Zevi’s we grabbed a coffee from Starbucks and headed back to the Marriott for a full day of conferencing.

The first panel I attended on Friday was the highlight of all the sessions I sat in on this year — “What’s in a Meme: Navigating the Promise and Complexities of Memetic Research Across Cultural, Political, and National Contexts.” I’ve been trying to incorporate memes into my news literacy classes, and this panel helped me brainstorm ways to work them into my curriculum. It also got my brain ticking toward a few research topics that I may want to consider in the future.

Less exciting for me was the panel “Protecting the Thin Blue Line: Free Speech, Government Speech or Hate Speech.” Nothing amps me up more than a conversation surrounding free speech, but the voices present were far too pro-police for me. There were a number of FBI agents on the panel and in the crowd and the agent sitting next to me had a gun, which I just don’t think was necessary for an academic conference. I should have left early, and if it weren’t for the lone person on the panel who approached the thin blue line as a symbol of hate speech and white supremacy, I would have. Although, with the current president — hate speech and white supremacy seem to be “in” these days. ACAB.

The final session I attended on Friday included the top faculty and student paper presentations for the Minorities and Communication Division, of which my friend Dante was a part! He presented his work, “Responsibility Framing, Minorities, and Alzheimer’s Disease: A Quantitative Content Analysis of U.S. News Media,” and I can see why it was awarded a top spot! The research was strong, and the topic was important; I’m so proud of how far we’ve come since we were working to navigate Northwestern together. So much changes, but the truly important things (and people) are constant.

After the conference, Jeremy and I went to Casa Borinquena in Saluhall Market for dinner. Casa Borinquena was a vegan Puerto Rican restaurant and Saluhall was a food hall and cooking school, so there were about five or six little eateries inside to choose from. I know if I lived in San Fran, this would be my spot! It was like a mall food court, sans the mall. I ordered a little of everything — a pincho (BBQ chicken skewer), relleno de papa (deep fried potato ball filled with seasoned Impossible beef picadillo) and a side of arroz con gandules. Jeremy had the sample platter. The rice was pretty bland, but the rest knocked my socks!

I made sure to save room for dessert though, because before we even entered the food hall I saw a man leaving with a soft served ice cream and I knew I wanted one! I got a chocolate cone to eat on the street, and it was just the sweet treat I wanted and needed! The cone was stale, but the ice cream hit the spot and reminded me of summers at the pool. My momma would always get my a chocolate cone after, and this one was just like that.

By Friday evening quite a few former/fellow Bobcats had made it to town, so we all met up at The Harlequin after dinner to catch up. Clay was leaving as we were all arriving, so he missed the photo opt, but pictured from left to right is Pam, Jeremy, Enakshi, me, and Amanda.

It was a nice little hang out session and catch up, but it really meant so much to me after my journey to get here. My path through the PHD program was long and meandering, as was my path into academia once I had that doctoral degree in hand. Each year that I saw a member of my cohort move forward while I stood stagnant I began to doubt more and more my ability to make it to where I am today. But this year, representing Cal State Long Beach in San Francisco, surrounded by friends and colleagues, I felt like I had really made it. I was grateful to finally have a seat at the table.

Back at my hotel I checked out another edible and turned on the latest episode of Dexter Resurrection. It’d been so long since I’d hung out with friends that I had a hard time falling asleep, but I had such a busy day planned for Saturday, that I finally coaxed myself into bed, dozing off around midnight.

AEJMC Day 3, Saturday: Sightseeing!

Just like the day before, Jeremy and I had to pivot our breakfast plans when the first place we checked out was packed. We ended up grabbing food at Metropolitan Coffee, where I had scrambled eggies and my first ever crepe with nutella. I had intended to get pancakes, because Jeremy had me craving them, but I’m glad that I had the opportunity to try something new, because I really liked it! It was a exactly like having dessert for breakfast, but no complaints here! My eggies were also softly scrambled, and I just love that. It was the perfect fuel for a long day of sight seeing across San Francisco. I didn’t know then exactly how much I was going to need it!

Jeremy had another bagel sandwich and Belgium waffles. They looked good, but not as good as my crepe. (Also — this is the only food I remembered to photograph, so enjoy this tiny bit of food porn. I wish I had more for ya.)

After a quick jaunt back to my hotel room to pack up my fanny pack, I was out to explore San Francisco and ready to go wherever my feet led me. (I’m just kidding. I planned out my entire route the night before.) I love the ooky spooky, so I found a 15-part podcast about San Francisco’s Zodiac Killer to serve as a soundtrack. Since he’d never been caught, I tried to think about him popping out and getting me, even though he’d be super old now and I could definitely best him.

My first stop was the Full House house, located at 1709 Broderick Street, about 2.5 miles from my hotel. San Francisco is a very hilly city and I was in no rush, so I made it in about about an hour, and even got to pass through Japantown on my way! I wasn’t the first person to show up at the house, and I wasn’t the last either. I took a photo for a group of tourists who were moving on to the Mrs. Doubtfire house, and then they offered to take one of me as well, which was really nice. As fun as it would be to live in the Tanner family home, I don’t think I’d much like people showing up to gawk at my house all day, every day. I enjoy natural light too much to keep my shades down and my curtains drawn all the time.

Knock, knock, Uncle Jesse, let me in!! Have mercy!

My next stop was Yoda Fountain, located at Lucasfilm‘s San Francisco campus at One Letterman — about a mile and a half away. The campus is the headquarters and creative hub for Lucasfilm Ltd., and houses the company’s key divisions, including Industrial Light & Magic (ILM) and LucasArts. The campus blends historic Presidio-inspired architecture with cutting-edge digital production spaces, making it both a working production studio and the symbolic centerpiece of Lucasfilm. The site includes:

Production offices for film and television projects
Post-production and visual effects facilities for ILM
Sound design studios (connected to Skywalker Sound operations)
Screening rooms
Lobby displays of Star Wars props, models, and memorabilia

Much of the campus was closed off for renovation, but as a faithful Star Wars fan, I was excited to see what I could. All the more reason to visit again in the future!

My final destination was the Golden Gate Bridge, which was another 3 miles from LucasFilm. It was a lot of walking, but it afforded me a greater opportunity to take in all of the lovely sights of San Fran, including a breathtaking view of Palace of Fine Arts poking out above the bay. (See my cover photo at the start of this post.) Most of my walk toward the bridge was along the water, and the closer I got the more the fog crept in, adding to that Northern California vibe that is so unlike what you’d find in sunny LA.

I was going to rent a bike to cross the bridge, but it was absolutely teeming with tourists. It was also incredibly windy, and many of the tourists who did opt for a bike seemed to lack confidence and control on two wheels. Long story short — biking appeared to be far more trouble than it was worth, so I stuck with my legs. I captured some pretty cool photos despite the mist, but next time I will definitely remember to bring along a sweater. I definitely could have used an extra layer up there.

After walking the bridge I was about six miles from my hotel, and began slowly retracing my steps back downtown. I say slowly, because by this point I’d already walked seven miles and my dogs were a barking and a howling. Every time I considered requesting an UBER I found just a bit more energy and excitement to keep me going, so in the end I ended up walking the whole way. My favorite part of the walk back was passing through Chinatown. A number of friends had suggested that I check it out if I had the time, so I was really happy when I happened to find myself right in the heart of it.

I grabbed an iced mocha when I was just a few blocks away from my hotel, and upon making it back I quickly showered and changed into professional attire so that I could meet with Jeremy and Clay for one last conference session. (AEJMC was kind of an afterthought on Saturday, but I am glad that I was able to catch at least one.) The session featured top paper presentations for the Newspaper and Online News division, which was the division that Jeremy and I presented within. We were watching all the people who beat us out for top paper, which is probably why they were all so well done!

Jeremy had another session that he wanted to catch before calling it a day, so I headed back to my hotel room to decompress for a bit before dinner. It was the first real break I’d had all day, so the downtime was much needed and greatly appreciated!

Jeremy and I went to Ippudo for dinner, and this one wins the whole ball game. This was my favorite meal in San Francisco, hands down. As an appetizer we split the Brooklyn Bridge sushi roll (sushi rice, seaweed, cucumber, pickled radish, avocado, eggplant kabayaki, mayo, sansho powder and kaiware) and as our main course we both got miso ramen (specially blended broth made from a mixture of various miso and seasonings, fried onion chips, ginger, seasoned bamboo shoots, spinach, corn, diced red onions, tofu chashu, and Tokyo-style thick wavy noodles). And OMG!!!! Even if I had gotten a photo, there’s no way it would have done this dish justice. 10/10.

Back at Hotel Zelos, and a couple of hours later, Enakshi invited me and Jeremy to hang out and have a drink up in her room, with Samantha — also from the OU graduate program — and their partners. It was fun, but I was pretty stoney bologna and had to be up super early in the a.m., so I called it a night relatively early. Which was hard, considering how much time I spend alone in my typical day to day! I definitely did my best to cherish every little moment that I had with old friends.

I went to bed happy, but excited to cuddle with my rotten Lemon.

Sunday: Heading home

My flight out of San Francisco departed at 10:50 a.m., so I had to leave pretty early to make it to the airport via the rail. Luckily for me, Jeremy is such a great friend that he got up super early to have breakfast with me, even though he was taking the red eye back to Virginia and had the longest day and night and day possible ahead of him.

We decided to grab Mel’s Drive-In again, because it was close to the hotel and because we knew the breakfast slapped. It kind of felt like I was ending my trip right where it started! I’d watched Jeremy ordered pancakes almost every morning for the past three days, and so I found myself with quite a hankering for a short stack. FLAPJACKS, BABY!!! I felt like I was in that episode of Sabrina the Teenage Witch when Sabrina broke the family curse by indulging in a cake and then couldn’t get enough of them. It’s all I want now.

After a big hug and a “see ya next year in Nawlins!” I said goodbye to Jeremy at the hotel and headed down the the Powell Street BART station to catch a train to the airport. The redline wasn’t running and I hate to wait about 25 minutes for the yellow, but I still made it to my gate by 9:15 a.m. There was a slight delay, but I made it to LAX shortly after noon. From LAX I caught the Metro to Fifth Street and UBERed home. Again — the flight itself wasn’t bad, but all the travel surrounding it was pretty tiring.

Luckily, I had a little Lemon to greet me with a wagging tail the second I walked through the door, which instantly alleviated all of my travel woes! My sweet girl and little bub were well taken care of the entire time I was gone, and I got so many photo and video updates to ease my mind, but I sure missed them!

I ran into some issues with my debit card upon my return, which I spent Monday sorting out, but overall there were no downsides to this trip! I built up my CV, shared research with fellow academics, visited historic sites, ate incredible food, and spent quality time with great friends!

That said — I’m happy to be home! LA beats San Francisco every day of the week, but maybe that’s because my heart is here. ❤️ AEJMC will be in New Orleans next year — so you’ll catch me keeping my fingers crossed and my nose to the grind! The fall semester starts in two weeks, and this was just what I needed to hit the ground running. Let’s gooooooo, year two!!